


We're Already Dead

by AkiRah



Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Conversations about Death, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I suppose?, Justice and Sigrun's friendship, angst I guess?, takes place as Vigil's keep is falling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 01:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4416536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkiRah/pseuds/AkiRah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the two technically dead members of the party, one might assume that Justice and Sigrun have rather a lot in common. One would be wrong. But there is solace in having someone nearby at the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue at Kal'hirol

“Am I correct in hearing you are dead, Dwarf?” Justice asked, rounding a corner and fixing Kristoff’s empty eyes down to where Sigrun was kneeling to scavenge a coin pouch off of one of the hurlock corpses. Sigrun looked up, pocketing the coins. She wrinkled her mouth and raised an eyebrow.

Waiting for a punchline before she remembered she was talking to _Justice_.

Sigrun sighed. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

“The body I inhabit is dead as well,” he said flatly. Justice said almost everything flatly. It was part of his . . . she was going to go with “charm.” Charm was the most flattering word that came to mind.

To her left, Anders snorted a little laugh until the Warden-Commander elbowed him and shook her head.

Sigurn turned back to Justice. “I . . .” she closed her mouth and floundered for a better explanation. “I don’t think that’s quite the same thing my friend.” She straightened and rolled her shoulders back, reaching to adjust a strap that had pulled too snug in the last fight.

Justice frowned. She pretended not to notice, having to half-jog to keep up with the tall topsiders as they found a set of Kal’hirol’s stairs.

“How is it different?”

“Excuse me?” Sigrun stopped mid step. “How is _what_ different?”

“How is your death different than mine?” Justice was looking down at her again. Something gave her the impression that it was less of a _height_ thing and more of a _spirit_ thing.

If everyone in the Fade was like Justice, she was glad she didn’t dream.

“Maker, Justice are you still on abo--”

“--Anders, let them alone.”

“My death was _symbolic_ ,” Sigrun explained. She emphasised the last word to make it clear that Justice was missing something _obvious_ , but her condescension fell on (literally) dead ears. “I entered the Legion and thus my old life ended.”

Justice’s expression didn’t change.

“But I imagine death will catch up with me soon enough. Don’t you worry.” She grinned.

“I do not worry,” Justice said, sounding almost offended at the implication of concern. “I was simply curious.”

To her left, Anders doubled over laughed. She resisted the urge to kick him in the back of the knee and stole Justice’s dagger with an easy, practiced motion.

That’d show him.

 

 


	2. We're Already Dead

Justice planted a foot on the genlock’s stomach and shoved it off the sword. Victory at last, though only by inches. Vigil’s Keep stood, but the walls were damaged and many good men and women lay dead. But they had won. The darkspawn corpses outnumbered the bodies of the defenders three to one.

For its part, Justice had not escaped unscathed. The shield arm of Kristoff’s body lay in a pool of darkspawn blood, it was missing an eye and half a cheek. The left knee was busted, twisting to the side. Justice used the good arm to push it back where it should have been. There were advantages, it supposed, to inhabiting a body that could not feel pain. There was fear though. It gnawed hungrily on the edges of Justice’s consciousness. Kristoff’s body was too badly damaged to be any further use. Justice would need either a new body or it would die.

If spirits could die.

 

* * *

 

_“So you believe we will all die soon.” It looked down at Sigrun as they stood in Vigil’s Keep courtyard. She had agreed to wander the battlements with it, both curious and wanting to see the whole of the world. Justice learned that she had never been above ground before, noted the way she clung to the guardrail for fear of flying into the sky._

_Much as it could feel the physical world threaten to swallow it, it could drown in the memories that coated every surface._

* * *

 

 

Sigrun. She and Velanna had been charged with the Keep’s defenses just as it had. Justice turned and bellowed their names. It should have been more watchful. Should have known at all times where its companions were.

Though they had all understood.

Justice had held the gate, Sigrun the walls, Velanna the rear to tend the wounded and provided supporting fire.

 

* * *

 

_“Won’t we all?” She said with a cheeky grin. Her brazen comfort with dying was most uncommon. Perhaps it had something to do with how she was already dead. Except that she wasn’t. She was symbolically dead. It made very little sense to Justice, just as her other “quirks” made little sense to it._

_A thief. But one it was almost fond of._

 

* * *

 

There was a stir not fifty feet from where Justice was standing. It hobbled in the direction and watched as Sigrun struggled to free herself from where she was buried beneath the fallen ramparts. It hurried as fast as Kristoff’s body would move and hit the ground, offering its arm to assist her.

 

* * *

 

_“I will not die,” Justice said. “Not as you will die.” It turned its milky dead eyes away from Sigrun and out onto the sun where it sank into the Amaranthine Ocean. It liked twilight, the physical world changed more immediately at dawn and sunset. Little, subtle changes in color and light that reminded it of home._

_Since possessing Kristoff’s corpse, Justice had become more . . . sentimental. It wasn’t sure if the change was positive, if it was Kristoff’s influence, if it was something that belong only to it. All Justice knew was that it was change._

_And it was terrifying and beautiful all at once._

 

* * *

 

 

“Justice?” Sigrun’s voice was weak, gurgled almost. She grabbed his arm and pulled herself out from under the rubble. Her face was bruised, eyes swollen almost shut. Broken nose, broken hand. Her breath was weak and crackled, interrupted by something in her lungs.

“I am here,” It said. Sigrun’s arm curled tighter around its, her puffy face pressed to Kristoff’s bicep. She pulled herself into Justice’s lap and it could more easily see the injuries. Her breastplate was cracked and bloody. It was a miracle she had lasted this long. Justice curled the arm around her, bending to press Kristoff’s forehead against her own. There were memories of holding another this way. Pressing foreheads together for comfort. Justice was surprised to find that it comforted it as well.

Sigrun closed her eyes. There were tears on her cheeks.

“The commander, Anders, Nathaniel and Ogrhen will return soon,” Justice offered.

“Did we win?”

“Yes.”

“Are you okay?”

“I am a spirit.”

 

* * *

 

_“Spirits such as yourself can be slain in this world,” Sigrun snorted. When Justice turned its attention back down to her, she had her tongue out. “Maybe you can, too.”_

_“That . . .” Justice frowned more deeply, it was something it had worried about. Perhaps Sigrun knew and was merely preying on its insecurities. “ . . . is a disturbing thought.”_

 

* * *

 

Sigrun’s attempt to laugh was a pitiful choking noise. She pressed her forehead more solidly against Kristoff’s. “Dust, is that smell me? Can I smell myself dying?”

“I believe that is Kristoff.”

“Good.” Sigrun swallowed. Her good hand grabbed one of Justice’s armor straps to hold it closer. “I’m . . . glad you’re here. I didn’t . . . I didn’t want to die alone.”

“We are both already dead, Dwarf. I would not abandon you now.”

 

* * *

 

_“Glad to be of Service!” Sigrun hopped off the crate she was standing on a gave Justice a wicked grin before she headed back for the Keep. Justice wrinkled Kristoff’s brow and exhaled. It was wrong of her to take such obvious delight in it’s discomfort._

_But perhaps that was how mortals were. It had seen similar interactions between the rest of it’s companions. Anders and Nathaniel bickering over the cat. Everyone harassing Oghren about his drinking and smell and Oghren asking everyone for personal details about their private matters._

_Even the commander was often involved._

_Perhaps this was Sigrun’s way of including it._

_In which case, perhaps it was not so bad._

 

 


End file.
